Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Good morning all…welcome!                        The Lord is with you!

As a reminder, we are collecting offerings today for the Novi Community, our friends who are in Ukraine, helping children of war recover from trauma.  Please be generous; in particular, they need funds to buy trauma kits.  You might remember that we saw these backpacks a few months ago when Steve and Jon visited us.  These will go with the trained counselors who use the kits to minister to the children.  Please make your checks to Novi, or to RefleXion is fine too.

I wanted to open with a prayer for them.  I have learned to “Pray the Psalms,” and maybe that would be a way of prayer that you might enjoy.  I know that so many of the Psalms are from King David, his songs, laments, cries for help, his praise.  When I am reading the Psalms, it’s a bit like reading his personal journal.  I ask for the Spirit to reveal what I need to see and feel.  Maybe this is my cry, and so interesting that David wrote this about 3000 years ago, right?  I might not relate to what the psalmist is saying for my own life experience, but someone is experiencing this.  I read it slowly, and someone I love might come to mind and a prayer might be formed.  As I read through Ps. 68 this week, I thought of Ukraine and The Novi Community and found an intersection of psalm and prayer. 

I’m going to read a few verses and then offer my prayer, then read a few more and do the same a few times.  Would that be OK?  This how it came to me.

From Psalm 68, beginning in v. 1:  A Psalm of David. A Song. God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him! As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God! But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!  Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him!

My prayer:  God, you are our God and the God of all people.  You are present to the people of Ukraine.  Rise up, God!  Scatter their enemies, your enemies.  Let the time be now for your people to be glad, even jubilant with joy.  They have suffered so much.  Remember the children.  Give them a song to sing.  Remind them that you are with them and for them.

Verses 5-10:  Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.  God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.  O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.  Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad; you restored your inheritance as it languished; your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

My prayer:  You have provided, Lord.  Thank you for the caregivers, the helpers; remember them.  Provide comfort and strength for them too.  Thank you for the leaders and staff of Novi.  We ask for provision for the kits they need.  Rain an abundance of blessings that they might know the love of God in this way.  Let not their enemies have provision, that they must turn back. Let them be thirsty, thirsty for what matters most.  Let their hearts be broken by what they do and see. 

Verses 28-30:  Summon your power, O God, the power, O God, by which you have worked for us. Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings shall bear gifts to you. Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute; scatter the peoples who delight in war.

My prayer:  Yes, by your authority and power Lord.  Do not let empire, power and greed control this war.  Scatter the people who delight in war.  We will use human power and tools—thank you for them; and what we really need is changed hearts.  Only you can do such a wonderful thing.  Let the leaders and soldiers of Russia realize truth, wisdom, and compassion. Change their hearts, O God. 

Verses 31-35:   Nobles shall come from Egypt; Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.  O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord, to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.  Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies.  Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel–he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!

My prayer:  Lord, let nations rise up to help the suffering.  Speak to all of us about righteousness. Plant seeds of hope that all people might declare your goodness, might know your mercy and justice.  Grant us power and strength.  Let each of us be a part of something that will bless, will give you glory, for you are an awesome God.  We pray in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen

Morning Talk: Jim Calhoun

With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6-8

⁃ More than 700 years before Jesus there was Micah. Micah was a prophet.
⁃ He came early in the stream of prophets. There had been peace for generations.
⁃ Things seemed to be going well.
⁃ But the people had lost the thread
⁃ They had lost the storyline.
⁃ They had forgotten who they were and what life was all about.
⁃ They were floundering and didn’t know it.

⁃ They were headed for disaster.
⁃ In 734 BCE things began to change.
⁃ The Assyrians went on the march to take Palestine.
⁃ They took aim at the region and began to pound away.
⁃ Each year for the next seven they came and made war.
⁃ In the end Damascus and its kingdom were dissolved and absorbed by the Assyrians.
⁃ Ammon, Moab and Edom were forced to pay tribute to the Assyrians. Tribute isn’t just taxes, but an expression of submission.
⁃ The Philistines, the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah are each made vassal states. The Assyrians controlled the states and territories without having to govern them. Part of the arrangement meant that the wealth of the vassal states would flow toward Assyria.
⁃ The northern Kingdom of Israel was the most prosperous of these three and chafed at this arrangement.
⁃ When the King that conquered them died, the northern kingdom rebelled. Over the next three years Assyria counterattacked and destroyed their capital, Samaria in 721 BCE after a three year siege.
⁃ After the collapses of the northern kingdom about 20 percent of the people were relocated to Mesopotamia (current day Iraq) about 600 miles away.

⁃ Others immigrated south to the Kingdom of Judah.
⁃ Most stayed were they were and became who we know as Samaritans.
⁃ The Assyrians also settled their own people in the region.
⁃ The Northern Kingdom was destroyed and the “ten tribes of Israel” were lost.
Why? Micah addresses the reasons and cites the following:
⁃ Unjust and corrupt leaders
⁃ The use of power for personal gain
⁃ Judges accepted bribes
⁃ Prophets and priests who exploited people for cash
⁃ Micah addresses how the poor were treated and he defends their rights against the rich and powerful
⁃ They wanted the land and homes and inheritances of others and then took them.
⁃ They defrauded them
⁃ They used false scales and weights
⁃ Micah also addresses the problem of idolatry.
⁃ Their pursuit of wealth was idolatry
⁃ And the wealth would be carried away by others and they would no longer enjoy it.
⁃ They had lost the thread

⁃ Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No disaster will come upon us.”
⁃ They were unaware that they had lost the plot
⁃ Disaster came anyway.
⁃ Micah told the people that destruction was coming. First to the northern kingdom in Samaria. It happened in his lifetime.
⁃ Then in Jerusalem in the southern kingdom. It happen in time about 150 years later.

How do we come to lose the thread?
⁃ The answer is found in the human condition
⁃ Finite
⁃ It is tremendously difficult for some of us to admit that we just don’t know
⁃ Not knowing makes us vulnerable
⁃ Flawed
⁃ Some things don’t work as they should
⁃ We don’t always know when things aren’t working correctly
⁃ Fragile
⁃ Anything that works in our lives may one day not work
⁃ We are easily disrupted
⁃ We are far more dependent than we like to imagine
⁃ Stress
⁃ The gap between needs and resources
⁃ Chronic stress = guilt, fear, anger, depression
⁃ We will often do anything we can think of to deal with the stress in our lives
⁃ This is one of the ways we lose the thread. We become so focused on what is creating stress in our lives that we turn our focus away from God.
⁃ Maladaption
⁃ Some of the ways we try to manage our stress just makes things worse.
⁃ They leave a long trail of hurt in our lives and in the lives of others.
⁃ One approach is we numb ourselves to our stress, our pain, our vulnerability. Unfortunately that means we also numb ourselves to the stress, pain and vulnerability of others, including those closest to us.
⁃ We add to the suffering of others and are unaware or we don’t care or both.
⁃ Things that were once unthinkable become everyday common
⁃ And we can get lost
⁃ We can get lost in our idols.
⁃ All of the substitutes we have for God
⁃ Micah is very plain about this.
⁃ The most powerful of these idols is money and wealth
⁃ It can corrupt our daily lives
⁃ It can corrupt our courts

⁃ It can cause us to treat others miserably, exploiting them, manipulating them, using them, destroying them and the whole fabric of their lives
⁃ It can corrupt even our worship
⁃ And it all seems reasonable, a matter of good practice and prudence since we are serving the idol to pacify our worries
⁃ And we lose the thread
⁃ Common good
⁃ The common good is good.
⁃ No need to talk it down or retreat from it. We can and should participate in it. It is our privilege and opportunity.
⁃ We can also get lost in the common good.
⁃ All the work to make life work for our families and our communities.
⁃ All the love, all the truth, all the beauty
⁃ It can fill a whole life. Absolutely consume it. And we forget there is something more.
⁃ We become blind to all that is happening. We congratulate ourselves for our happy families and good communities.
⁃ We forget that there is more to life and we lose the thread.
⁃ We say to ourselves
⁃ “Is not the Lord among us?
No disaster will come upon us.”

Micah gives us the path back.
⁃ First he tells us what is not helpful.
⁃ No need for grand gestures
⁃ No call for thousands of rams, ten thousand streets of oil or your first born.
⁃ These things use up all of our energies and we think we are done.
That we have appeased the angry God.
⁃ We don’t need to buy off God to make him love us again. He never stopped.
⁃ This isn’t what God wants at all.
⁃ He wants us to pick up the thread, to remember the story line, to re-engage with him and leave our idols behind and to trust him with our worries and fears and shame and anger and frustration and sadness and loss of hope.
⁃ He wants us to return to the path to remember who we are.
⁃ If you are feeling off the path then the best thing to do, the only thing to do is to return to the path. Not with sacrifices, not with promises to do better and be worthy
⁃ Return to the path to be on the path.
⁃ Return to the path to remember who you are, to refresh your love, to renew the meaning of your life
⁃ And if you wander from the path that is okay. Simply return.
⁃ We hold ourselves with enough compassion to gently encourage and allow ourselves to return to the path.

⁃ We remember that we are finite, flawed and fragile. And that is how it is. And that is okay
⁃ Meditation practice as an example
⁃ First to do justly
⁃ To live justly means to love God wholly and to love our neighbor, all of them, as ourselves.
⁃ I will never grow tired reminding myself and others that Justice and righteousness are relational, not rule based.
⁃ Pick up the thread and commit yourself anew to a life of the golden rule
⁃ Then to love mercy
⁃ Everyone we know is trying to work out their stress just as we are.
⁃ Sometimes they are doing great.
⁃ Sometimes they are making a big fat mess of things.
⁃ Hold them with kindness and gentleness and patience.
⁃ Even when you have to love them with limits and boundaries do so with mercy.
⁃ Just as you would want someone to do for you when you need some limitations
⁃ Pick up the thread anew and commit yourself to a life of compassion
⁃ And then to walk with humility.
⁃ It is terrifyingly easy to see how quickly we can become grandiose.
⁃ To think our thought are the same as God’s thoughts.
⁃ To think God could use a little education and thinking we just might set God right.
⁃ That God needs our help to defend his honor or to make him effective.
⁃ We can act, hold in our heart that God is impotent, ineffectual acting too slow.
⁃ So a business manipulates the books to increase their profits
⁃ So we treat people like garbage do we can climb over them to get ahead to secure what we think we deserve and God has promised.
⁃ So a judge accepts bribes to move the program along.
⁃ So political leaders can justify any excess to win.
⁃ There are political operatives that came out this week claiming they are “soldiers of the Lord” and this is a political battle to the death.
⁃ No it isn’t. And no they aren’t. They are political operatives attempting to manipulate Christian’s by getting them riled up and fearful. They aren’t prophets and they aren’t in charge.
⁃ They lost the thread
⁃ But now we need to pick up the thread
⁃ Remember that we are finite, flawed and fragile.
⁃ Remember that we are creatures of the creator
⁃ That we are here small fish in a small pond.
⁃ And we can act accordingly with gratitude, worship, and communion

⁃ That’s who we are.
⁃ That is our thread
God, I am finite, flawed and fragile. I sometimes wander away. Bring me back. Hold me close. Make me whole day by day. Show me the ways I can live with gratitude for all you do and all you mean to me. Thank you.

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Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Good morning and welcome to our RefleXion Community!    The Lord is with you.

When we were young, we all memorized spelling words and multiplication tables, didn’t we?  And before we took our test, our mom or our teacher would ask, “Do you know them by heart?”  and we’d say something like, “Yes, we’ve memorized them, backwards and forwards, practiced many times; we know them by heart.”  I wonder why we use that phrase:  knowing it by heart; because we aren’t using our heart at all, are we?  But that’s what we say.

Oh, and Happy Mother’s Day!  Mothers know things by heart, for sure.  Mothering is not all about studying the rules or reading about someone else’s experience, but it’s your lived experience:  your love, your heart that makes you a mother.  If you delivered a child, raised a child, lost a child; if you’ve nurtured, supported, tutored, listened to, bandaged, coached, or otherwise made a place for a child, we celebrate your heart today—the heart of a Mother.

As we make time to listen to our own hearts and to the heart of the Beloved, we will know our God by heart, not just from a book or from what others say, but from our own lived experience, a heart-knowing.  That is knowing by heart.    It is a love relationship after all. From the Song of Songs:  I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.

Join me in prayer, will you?

God, may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You.  Try our hearts and see what they need.  Have our hearts grown dull? Revive them.  Have they grown hard?  Soften them.  Mother us:  lead, strengthen, and heal us.  Let us hear Your words and take them to heart.  All this we pray that we may know You by heart and tell others our stories, tell them by heart.  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. Mark 10:1

Intro: When Nicodemus visited Jesus, his first words were,
Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God

Nicodemus was correct — Jesus is a teacher
– Mark tells us teaching people Jesus’ “custom” – his usual response when people showed up
• that is what we witness as we watch Jesus move through this chapter
• Jesus never ran out of things to say
◦ and every word he spoke was enlightenment
– one of his teaching techniques was that he allowed people to ask questions
• and when they did, he typically answered their questions with a question
◦ what do they know–or think they know?
◦ this would give him the opportunity to reveal God’s higher thoughts

Jesus was asked a question about divorce (vv. 2-12)

Those asking were not disciples and the question was not sincere
the Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
– Jesus had to answer carefully — they had set a trap
My meditation:
“To me, it looks like Jesus played a trick on them, that he primed them. He planted a thought to influence their response. He asked, ‘What did Moses command you?’ That question suggests that the answer would be found in the law and its commandments. So their response was predictable–they referred to a well known passage in Deuteronomy 24. Did Jesus lead them there intentionally? He could have asked, ‘What did Moses say?’ or ‘What do the Scriptures say?’ but he specified Moses and command.
Jesus was ready for their answer. With surprising authority, he explained why Moses wrote that commandment–it was a concession because of their ‘hardness of heart.’ Then Jesus offered another quotation that predates Moses and the law. From ‘the beginning of creation,’ before Moses, before the law, before sin and hard hearts. This was a critical theme in Jesus’ teaching; namely, the significant difference between how they practiced the law and how he interpreted it (cf. Mt. 5). His concern was not the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law.”
– every marriage has challenges
• many are imperfect, but tolerable–or tolerable until someone else enters the picture
◦ then a spouse may stop trying (to connect, to renew the flame, to work on intimacy skills)
• there are several legitimate reasons to divorce,
◦ but to divorce to be with someone else is not one of them

“Hardness of heart” has been a theme since chapter 6
– it is an unwillingness to change or be changed
• hardness of heart is more common than I would like to admit
• Jesus’ mission was to expose our hard hearts and enlist our cooperation to change them

The Pharisees backed off, and parents arrived with their children

I’m always impressed with the ease in which Jesus received children
– small children make some people nervous – not Jesus
• he’s at home with them and they feel at home with him
– we won’t linger over this story, but only look at two items:
• first, the disciples “rebuked” the parents – remember that
• second, note what Jesus said regarding children and the kingdom of God

The next story takes up the most space in chapter
(Please read verses 17-27)

The question the rich man asked was, “What must I do?”
– but in this context, it is obviously not about “doing”
• the question is, What are you willing to become? To be?
Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 18:3)
– it turns out that “eternal life” and “the kingdom of God” are interchangeable
• this section begins and ends with “eternal life” (vv. 17 & 30)
◦ but in the center, Jesus switches to the “kingdom of God” (vv. 23-25)
• “the kingdom of God” is a domain, a spiritual dimension
◦ “eternal” is the nature of life in that dimension

There are lots of pieces of this story that have been my meditation over the years
– so what I will do is sort them by theme
Love V. 21, “‘Jesus, looking at him, loved him.’ When Jesus looked–at someone or something, he saw much more that his disciples could see (e.g., Mk. 8:19-21). What Jesus sees penetrates the surface, the appearance, the obvious. He sees the deep things of the soul–the true and the false, the good and the bad, the strength and the weakness. So when Jesus looks at people, he is often moved by compassion and concern. He looks and he loves.”
Discouragement V. 22 “I do not believe that Jesus wants anyone to be “disheartened” by his words. If Jesus caused the rich man pain, it was not for lack of love. Many times, being disheartened may be our initial reaction to what Jesus requires, but if we surrender, the moment will quickly pass. Following Jesus will eventually bring us to encouragement, peace, and joy.
Nevertheless, Jesus will not compromise the necessary conditions for entering the kingdom of God to avoid breaking someone’s heart. If he will have a follower, it will be forever, and his relationship with his followers will be forged in truth, devotion, and love.”
Contrast V. 23, “The contrast of wealthy adults who cannot buy or squeeze their way into the kingdom of God versus children who twirl, skip, and chase butterflies into the kingdom of God. It simply belongs to them. Their belief in Jesus comes to them naturally. ‘How difficult,’ Jesus said. Easy for children, difficult (in fact impossible) for the rich.”
Looking (again) “When the rich man walked away, ‘Jesus looked around,’ perhaps to read the crowd’s reaction. So he explained the dilemma of the wealthy. But that did not comfort them–it made them more anxious. So, again he looked, this time at his disciples and spoke to them with words that sank deep into their hearts until they reached the bedrock of their impossibility. And at that point, he revealed the unlimited possibilities with God.”
Greed “We would like to believe that wealth would not change us, that it would not take over all our thoughts and passion or threaten our relationship with God. Wealth does not make anyone a better person. It is well known that poor people are more generous and give a larger percentages of their income to charities than do the rich and famous. Wealth does not make anyone more patient and loving, nor does it increase anyone’s integrity or other virtues.
Greed may be the biggest problem in the U.S. today–maybe in the world. It is what makes all the other environmental and social problems so difficult to resolve. Greed takes possession of people. It drives them with an insatiable hunger. It makes them less sensitive to others and causes them to become spiritually blind.
I cannot help but wonder about the wealthiest Christian ministers, pastors, and evangelists in our nation. Do they disregard what Jesus taught? Do they think they’re immune? Do they realize that they cannot enter God’s kingdom without great difficulty? Or do they assume living in wealth is for them the kingdom of God?”
Hardship V. 30, “Whatever asset a Christian has in this life, whether monetary, status, or relationships, it will come with hardship. God does not mean for us to be too comfortable, too successful, too content in the world. He does not want us clinging so tightly to this life (because we have it so good) that we are not eager to give it up to serve him or come home when he calls.”

Now we come to another brief note regarding Jesus’ destiny
And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Mark 10:32

There’s an eerie feeling to this scene – amazement and fear
– Mark does not bother to explain it
• maybe we’re supposed to realize this moment is beyond us
◦ that walking by himself, Jesus is in his own world
• his thoughts are caught up in the darkness that will swallow him
◦ it becomes obvious that his disciples don’t get it

The last two stories are connected by the same question

“What do you want me to do for you?”
– James and John wanted Jesus to award them with a special honor
“Who will receive the honor of sitting next to Jesus? Not those who enjoy being honored now. Jesus was unassuming, and regarding his personal needs and desires, undemanding. So who is like him in these respects? Who is servant-like? Who drinks from his cup and is baptized with his baptism? Perhaps someone quiet and unassuming person who always is ready to volunteer for all kinds of service to others. Perhaps someone that religious people cannot recognize as being a Christian.”
– a blind beggar wanted Jesus to let him recover his sight
• I asked you to remember the earlier verse when the disciples “rebuked” parents
◦ here the crowd “rebuked” the blind beggar
“The first reaction of some Christians to strangers who enter their circle is rejection. This is especially true if the person is ‘different.’ Driving Addison to school this morning, she told me that last year the eighth-graders maintained their own circle and excluded the seventh-graders. A teacher this week encouraged her class to not repeat that behavior, but include the seventh-graders in their circle. It seemed like good advice for churches that tend to build barriers rather than bridges. Jesus’ mission was not to fulfill God’s purpose for church-goers, but for all people everywhere.
Who gets my attention and who gets ignored?”
• and another contrast (before it was the wealthy man and children,
◦ here I saw it between the wealthy man and the blind beggar
“It was much easier for the beggar to leave everything and follow Jesus than it was for the rich man. In fact, Jesus couldn’t get rid of the beggar. He told him, ‘go your way,’ but he followed Jesus on the road. The kingdom of heaven is the one place where the slave and the impoverished have the advantage.”

Conclusion: Given all that we’ve gone over,

Take your time and think seriously and deeply about these next three sentences

What is the question you want to ask Jesus?
What do you think will be the question he asks you?
If you aren’t sure you’re up for hearing what he has to say,
can you believe that with God all things are possible?

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Heavenly Father give us your presence
Or rather, 
give us a sure knowledge 
that you are here already
Near to us, loving us
Concerned for us 
Aware of our struggles
Aware of our troubles
Loving us in our messiness
Loving us with our abundant flaws
Loving us knowing the truth of us
Care for us, Lord
Provide for us
Heal us
Teach us
Help us
Hold us up
Make us whole 
Please Lord be patient with us
Don’t give up on us
Hold us dear
Make all things well
Thank you
Thank you 
Amen 

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you one for Moses and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. Mark 9:1-8

Intro: There are at least two ways to read the Bible

We can dive into it head-first or we can enter with our heart
– of course it’s important to think about what we’re reading
• but it’s also important to feel what we read
◦ to be responsive to the content of the text and how it affects us
• I study Scriptures with my head and meditate with my heart
– my meditations are mostly private
• they consist of what God speaks to me regarding my own issues
◦ so why am I sharing my meditations in Mark’s gospel with you?
• because even though Jesus walked the earth long ago,
◦ it’s possible to know and love him today
◦ how? By immersing ourselves in his story
• if we take our time, and observe him–his way with others
◦ his kindness, his goodness, his strength, his compassion–
◦ we come to know him and knowing him to love him

The story of Jesus’ transfiguration is dramatic and all too brief

It begins with Jesus’ promise, that some of them would
see the kingdom of God after it has come with power
– maybe this extraordinary revelation is a preview
• that this is what the full arrival of God’s kingdom will be like
◦ glory, heavenly conversations, God’s divine presence
◦ and at the center of all of it, there is Jesus
• Mark realizes this event is amazing, yet he rushes through it
◦ his repeated use of the word “and” pushes story forward
– so, like Peter, we realize it’s good for us to be here,
• and we wish we could stay longer, but Mark won’t let us
• Mark knew the event was spectacular, but he does not sensationalize it

My past meditations on this include the following:

“The three disciples didn’t know why they were hiking up the high mountain. Jesus led and they followed. That’s what disciples do, they follow. Did they go in the spirit of adventure? Or were their minds filled with their usual worldly thoughts–as later on in verse 33, when ‘they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest‘? The three had no idea of what they were about to experience.
We are being led by Jesus. We’re not in charge of all the places we must go, all the people we’ll encounter along the way. We may not know the purpose of our going until afterward. Sometimes we feel like we’re blundering forward, but we find out we were being led into a revelation of glory.”

(Regarding Elijah and Moses) “At last Jesus had someone he could talk with who understood him, whose hearts were not hardened. These were also people with whom he could have a meaningful conversation about his approaching death and resurrection.”

“There is a Greek word that occurs at the beginning of this story, and then again at the end. It is the word monos–alone. The three went up the mountain alone with Jesus and came back down alone with Jesus. While there, two long-gone biblical characters arrived and spoke with Jesus. Then God manifested his presence and spoke with them. But afterward, they were looking around and saw no one except Jesus alone. All that they needed to take with them from that experience was Jesus.”

The next story contains contrasts and comparisons with the first

The first occurs on a mountain with a Father and his beloved Son
– the second took place down the mountain, with a father and his troubled son
• the Father in first story expresses pleasure in his Son
• the father in second story expresses desperate concern for his son
– the climax of both stories is each son’s transfiguration

The heart of this story is Jesus’ interaction with the father
– there are two key statements the father makes
• first: if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us
◦ Jesus was apparently offended by that
◦ he throws it back on the father: If you can! All things are possible for the one
“Jesus says this as if faith were natural and easy, but it is neither. Like the father, my faith needs help. In verse 19, Jesus bemoans this ‘faithless generation’–a people characterized by their lack of faith. Now he suggests that if there is just one person who truly believes, ‘all things are possible.’”

the second key statement: I believe; help my unbelief!
Imagine the suffering of both the father and the son as these attacks have been going on ‘from childhood.’ The father’s ‘help us’ is sadly compelling.
Jesus does not appear very cooperative at first. Twice he asks ‘How long’ –‘am I to be with you’ and ‘am I to bear with you?’. Then there’s Jesus sharp response to the father when he says, ‘if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’ Not being able to hear the Lord’s tone, I imagine irritation in his voice. He sounds upset that he might have to put up with people and their ongoing ignorance and lack of faith. He sounds offended that the father would assume there is an ‘if’ in Jesus’ ability to do anything for them. Of course, I may be wrong. There are other ways of hearing what Jesus’ voice.
That the father had some faith is evidenced by the fact that he brought his son to Jesus. But isn’t this our cry? We cannot deny the weakness of our faith, we can only confess that we do have some faith. We need God’s help to deepen and empower our faith.
I cannot help but feel the father’s desperation and helplessness. In situations like his, it’s difficult to believe there is any hope for a real change. Unfortunately, at this critical moment when it seems Jesus may take the opportunity help the father with his unbelief, they were interrupted. ‘And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again”’ (v. 25). But maybe driving the spirit out of the boy was the answer to the father’s prayer. Seeing the miracle would certainly help him overcome his unbelief.
Is it okay for us to pray, ‘Help my unbelief?’ Well, of course it is.”

– I have two other thoughts about this episode:
• first, the most important moment in this story is when Jesus says, “Bring him to me”
◦ this is what we need to do with every need, every grief
• second, more important that having faith to work miracles, is having day to day trust in God
◦ it is not miracles that carry us through life, but trust that helps us to accept life as it is

When Jesus and the disciples move on, something is different
And he did not want anyone to know (Mk. 9:30-32)

“This reveals a personal side of Jesus. In the story of Jesus, it seems that, normally, he exists only for others and never has a life of his own. His needs and desires did not matter, the desperation of others prevailed. He could try to find peace and quiet, but the crowds always found him–even in desolate places. He was like a single parent, who never knows a moment’s rest. Here, however, he wants something for himself. I appreciate this moment, because it gives me the opportunity to move closer to him and empathize with him.”
– the disciples, however, were not able to do that
they did not understand his saying, and were afraid to ask
• but for them it was simply a matter of timing
“Several times I’ve started reading a book that I was not able to understand or appreciate, so I shelved it. Then, after several years, I picked it up again, and this time I had a different experience. It was the same book, but it not only made sense, it was rich in insight and very helpful. The experience of the disciples may have been like that. Each time Jesus made an announcement about the future, they could not figure out what he was talking about. Only later were they ready to comprehend his meaning.
It is alright for Jesus to know things we don’t know and that he won’t explain to us. He is familiar with mysteries that are not only beyond our comprehension but some are also none of our business. He is Lord, the unique Son of God.
If God withholds something from me, then it’s something I don’t need to know. I am given enough to go about my everyday routine. However, if the Lord lets me know that there even are such mysteries as to exist beyond me, it is to deepen my awe and reverence for him and strengthen my trust.”

Conclusion: We will find three “whoever” statements in last three episodes
whoever receives me (v. 37)
whoever gives a cup of water, (v. 41)
whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble . . . (v. 42)

“Why is it, every time Jesus brings up Jerusalem, where he will be rejected and crucified, his disciples get into discussions regarding which one of them is the greatest? Jesus’ response is worth coming back to regularly. Greatness is not about lots of money, influence, or fame. It is not about hanging out with powerful and well known people. Greatness is not being too important to care for the weakest, poorest, and neediest people in the world. And that is pretty much what the remainder of this chapter is about.
Whoever receives a child receives Jesus. Whoever gives a disciple of Jesus a cup of cold water, because that disciple belongs to Jesus, will not lose their reward. Whoever causes a small or insignificant person to stumble will pay a heavy penalty for it.
‘Whoever’ is a big word. It crosses boundaries, disregarding social circles, a person’s age, friend or stranger. ‘Whoever’ is more universal and more inclusive than many religious people are willing to accept.”

There is another lesson in the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, and it is BIG
We learn, there is one thing that a disciple must do, and do well
and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him”
We must listen to Jesus
All the time and in everything
And for as long as I live, I’ll do my best to help us do that

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Prayer and Welcome: Nancy Lopez

Welcome to our RefleXion community!   May the Peace of the Lord be with you.

We’re in the season between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension, and what was Jesus doing those 40 days?  Well, for one thing, He was showing his scars to someone who needed to see them.  Remember Thomas? “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Jesus showed Thomas his wounded hands, his scars.  It had me wondering if there is a difference between wounds and scars.  Wounds are injuries.  Scars are evidence of the healing of a wound.  

Scars tell stories.  Scars from an operation tell the story of an injury or disease, a surgery, and a recovery.  Scars from a burn are different from knife wounds.   Jesus must have had horrendous scars.  After His resurrection, why do you think that He still had those scars?  Perhaps they remind us that He is one of us, that He knows our pain, and that one day we will have all the healing we need. 

A couple of weeks ago I was remembering Lazarus and how He was raised to life but still had his wrappings, as we do, metaphorical bandages and coverings.  I wanted to say a bit more, because I know from personal experience that removing bandages and allowing ourselves and others to see our wounds is not at all pleasant!  Seeing our bloody mess might cause us to choose to just cover it up again. As we remove our coverings–shame, fear, addictions, blame…, if our wounds are still quite bloody, even infected and destroying the surrounding tissue, we certainly don’t want to cover them again; we want to seek healing and not to expose them to everyone right now.  Or maybe we just need some stitches to help us heal or perhaps an infection specialist. 

Perhaps we will see that we are already healed; we might see a scar, and that’s evidence of a measure of healing.  And then if someone needs to see to believe for themselves, we can show them our scars and tell our story.  I’ll bet you already do that; and for that, we are thankful.

Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus, we thank you for your healing powers.  We pray that we will see more and more of those powers working in us and for us.  We will not reject our scars but offer them as invitations to believe in healing.  Thank you for being our Savior and our Exemplar.  Help us, heal us, bring Shalom.  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

And Jesus went on with the disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” . . . “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
. . . . “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his [soul] will lose it, but whoever loses his [soul] for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:27-38

Intro: We are at the center of Mark’s gospel, heart of his message – the hub of the wheel

In chapter 8 Mark pulls everything together
– Jesus Christ appeared in the world on a mission
• he came to introduce people to the kingdom of God
• but making them aware of God’s presence and kingdom proved to be extremely difficult
◦ it is not easy for us to awaken to God’s Spirit
– this chapter reveals the tension our worldly mind and spiritual mind more clearly than any other
• I tried to describe this tension a few years ago in one of my meditations:
“A theme that Mark has emphasized, is that the human mind is geared to physical reality. As a result, our minds do not open easily to the spiritual realm, in fact, we are resistant to it. We are fixated on the material realm and how it is humanly perceived, experienced, and manipulated. The term Mark uses for our fixation is ‘hardened heart.’ This has been the disciples’ struggle for awhile. Their hardened hearts prevented them from gaining insight from Jesus’ miracles (Mk. 6:52). They keep missing the point, because their minds were stuck in material literalness.
When Peter rebuked Jesus, his mind was locked by his limited perception and consciousness. Jesus pointed this out when he told Peter he was not setting his mind ‘on the things of God, but on the things of [humans]’ (v. 33). It seems that Peter felt ashamed of a crucified Messiah. That resulted naturally from his one-dimensional perception. Given a more complete perception, he would learn that the real shame lies not in following a crucified Messiah, but being disowned by him when he comes ‘in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
Jesus is the revelation that enlightens us to the dimension of God’s kingdom. He contrasts the realm of ‘this generation’ with the realm of ‘his Father [and his] angels,’ which is the same contrast we see between ‘the things of [humans]’ and ‘the things of God.’ The truth that has been illuminated in the previous stories, like light shining through stained glass windows, bursts through this chapter in brilliant color. I may not see the full spectrum very well, but I know the truth is here, and it is larger than my universe.”

The chapter begins with another “miracle meal”

The way Mark introduces it, is different from the previous one
– it begins with Jesus explaining to the disciples his compassion for the families gathered there
• they were in this “desolate place” because of him
◦ they followed him here because they wanted to be with him
• it’s true that they had to go home sometime, but he could not just send them away
◦ they’d have to labor across rugged terrain on empty stomachs
– how Jesus treated the crowd is a lesson for his disciples
• the concern for others that they needed to feel and act on
From my meditations: “This is Jesus Christ our Lord. ‘In the days of his flesh’ he knew hunger and weariness; he knew suffering and sorrow; he knew empathy and compassion. Jesus felt what the crowd felt. He feels what we feel.”

On the move again, Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees

They came to him, not to be with him like the others, but to argue with him
– they asked for a sign to prove himself–that he came from God
• Mark describes Jesus’ initial response to their challenge this way: he sighed deeply in his spirit
◦ for years, that phrase has intrigued me
From my meditations: “My thoughts swirl around his deep sigh. What did it signify? Sorrow? Frustration over their demand that he satisfy their rational minds? Why could they not see that God was calling them to a larger reality than can be contained by this world or human minds? God’s kingdom is infinite space and eternal time. Signs may point people in the right direction –if they accept the sign–, but signs do not provide access to the kingdom of God.
How can we possibly know the depth of Jesus? From those subterranean depths there came a sigh. It is ‘in his spirit’ that Jesus sighed. What does it tell us? A sigh emerges from feelings too deep for words. Jesus does not feel the compassion for the Pharisees that he felt toward the crowd. The Pharisees do not get their sign. They get nothing from him other than a warning. God’s Spirit sighs over our stumbling around in the dark.”

I have come to believe that verse 14 is a setup

This sort of maneuver is sometimes referred to as “priming”
– a thought is placed in a person’s mind to influence their response to a question that follows
• we read “bread” then “yeast” and make an automatic association
◦ with the disciples we think “bread” — and it is important that we fall for this trick
◦ it puts us in the same position as disciples
• we need to realize that we have the same problem!
◦ our minds naturally turn to the physical and literal meaning of words
– what was the immediate danger the Pharisees presented?
• a mind-set that demanded physical or rational validation
◦ that God must let us touch the intangible, see the invisible for us to believe
◦ it is the mind-set of “human things” over “God’s things”
• if we let go of the materialist mind-set, we begin to see
◦ bread can be a sign; a fig tree can be a sign; a fishing net can be a sign

I notice in scolding the disciples, every sentence Jesus speaks is a question
– to me, the most devastating question is, “Are your hearts hardened?”
From my meditations: “A ‘yes’ answer to this question would answer his other questions. “Yes, I am blind; yes, I am deaf; no I do not perceive or understand, because my heart is hardened.”
The leaven of the Pharisees does not make bread rise, it makes hearts harden. A hardened heart is one that cannot change.”
• he also asks, Do you not yet understand?
◦ as if saying, “If you don’t get it by now, you’ll never get it”
• what were they supposed to understand by now?
◦ that with Jesus material needs are never the main concern?
◦ perhaps God meeting our material need is a secondary grace
giving us his kingdom may be his primary grace
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Mt. 6:33)

I’m convinced Mark deliberately placed next story in this spot

It’s a story about a blind man – but it’s an odd one
– first, it follows the exact pattern of a healing before this chapter
• in both stories:
▫Jesus has just arrived in a location
▫ the people there bring a disabled man
▫ they beg Jesus to heal him
▫ specifically, to touch him
▫ Jesus takes the man aside
▫ touches him
▫ applies spit
▫ heals him (one hears clearly, the other sees plainly)
▫ Jesus instructed them not to tell
◦ besides sharing this unique pattern, these are the only healings stories in Matthew, Mark, and Luke in which Jesus uses spit in the process of healing someone
• Mark wants us to connect these two stories with disciples, who Jesus just now asked,
Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?
– the second odd thing about this story,
• the blind man is not healed instantly, but in stages

Here is how I read this story:
– Jesus has just dealt his disciples a devastating blow
• he’s demonstrated that they have not made much progress
◦ I imagine that left them feeling discouraged
• but it’s not only the disciples who take a hit,
◦ we the readers also realize we’re not getting anywhere either
◦ we feel just as blind, deaf, and uncomprehending
• and, we may fear it’s a chronic condition with no fix
– eyes and ears are organs of perception
• in two stories, before and after his criticism of the disciples, Jesus worked miracles
◦ he made a deaf man hear and a blind man see
• Jesus was showing his disciples what he could do for them
◦ by working miracles, he could open their ears and eyes
◦ and he could also crack open their hardened hearts
• as frustrating as it may be for both teacher and student,
◦ receiving and owning spiritual insight comes in stages — as with the blind man’s healing

In an unusual twist, Jesus tested the blind man’s sight (v. 23)

That’s also what he did with disciples when warned them regarding the leaven of the Pharisees
– now, after his scolding them and healing the blind, Jesus he tests them again
Who do people say that I am? . . . But who do you say that I am?
• this time they pass the test – they have 20/20 vision
• but then he begins to inform them of what lies ahead
◦ Mark adds, “And he said this plainly”–unlike his analogy with the leaven
– what happens next is way too familiar – it’s definitely my MO
• Peter reverts to his rational-literal mind-set
• and we’re back to where we started at the beginning of this talk

Conclusion: Jesus sums up perfectly everything we’ve gone over

If there’s one point on which all of this is balanced, it’s your soul
What can a man give in return for his soul?
What kind of deal can you broker for your soul?
And once you’ve completed the negotiation, you’ve lost your soul

Awareness has consequences
We can no longer trust the rational, literal, material mind-set
We realize that there is no worldly road that brings us to a life worth living,
there is only the daily pursuit of following Jesus

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Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Welcome to our RefleXion Community!          Peace be with you!

All my photos from my phone are saved “in the cloud” at Amazon, and every day I have the opportunity to look at my photos from “this date” in past years.  Do you ever do that?  This year I noticed a real difference in nature between this year and last year.  This year the trees outside my window are just barely beginning to get their leaves.  Last year they were full of foliage. In past years I had Monarch butterfly caterpillars already hanging in their chrysalises on this date.  This year I haven’t even seen a butterfly, let alone eggs and caterpillars.  Every season is different and has its own ways and timing. 

Don’t you wish we could look at our own souls from this day in past seasons?  If there was an audio message attached, I’ll bet it would say, “Look how far you’ve come!”  In any case, let’s be encouraged that there are seasons and reasons for our souls.  And we don’t have to judge or compare ours with others. 

Last week, Chuck reminded us that on the church calendar we are still in the “Easter” season, the season of resurrection. Can we look out our window and say to ourselves, “It is new season, that is all.  If I am in Jesus, I am still in the season of resurrection.  I’m being made new.” From Romans 8:38, “And I am convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love.  Neither death or life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”

Will you pray with me:
Lord, thank You for Your promises.  Let this be the season where we take hold of them, and You, where we let go of old ways, where we let things be that aren’t ours.  Give us, we pray, resurrection power to grow in You, to be made new for Kingdom life.  We welcome You, Lord, as we welcome each other in Your name.  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, the do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” Mark 7:1-5

Intro: I have been blessed with a number of extraordinary friends

One of them was incredibly creative
– he could hardly complete a project, because he was constantly distracted by new idea
• sometimes I would call him when feeling depressed
• his creativity was so inspiring, it changed my outlook
– he agreed to fill-in for me as a guest speaker
• it took him awhile to come up with a title for his talk, but eventually emailed it to me:
“Don’t Be the Kind of Christian There Are Already Too Many Of”
• Jesus gave talks on that same topic
◦ he said that regarding charity, prayer, or fasting, you must not be like the hypocrites (Mt. 6:5)
and in chapter 23, he tells his disciples,
The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat [to teach], so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For the preach, but do not practice (Mt. 23:2-3)
◦ he follows that statement with a long list of the wrong things they did

In my meditations that I’ll share with you today, I used the word “religion”

When we hear that word, we may think of a specific institution
– like the Roman Catholic Church or Southern Baptist Convention
• we may think of an organization built around a set of beliefs and practices
• religion is the visible expression of devotion to a deity or supernatural concept
◦ if we get no closer to God than external religion,
◦ we have an empty, lifeless container without the contents
– religion can bring out the best in people and the worst
• it can liberate people or oppress them
◦ it can be a blessing to a community or a curse
◦ it can make peace or it can make war
• all of my past meditations on this chapter focused on the dark side of religion
◦ in this passage, religion’s traditions turned people into self-righteous fault-finders

Jesus had little conflict with anyone other than religious people

The Pharisees and scribes imagined themselves to be in charge of religion
– it seems they felt they had to take control of religion and use it to control the actions of others
Gerald May, “I have to say again . . . that there is no ‘how to’ in [spirituality]. If we are willing for it, if we are open and awake to its possibility, it just happens. It is given. My religious faith explains it thus: God is endlessly, irrepressibly and unconditionally loving, always calling us home. But in that love, God leaves us always free to accept or decline the invitation. God treats us with absolute respect. God may beckon us gently or challenge us fiercely, but God will not make us puppets and pull our strings. . . . Love does not control. Love frees.”
• buried beneath the Pharisee’s and scribes’ complaint was a genuine concern
– in 2011, when reading Mark, I was also reading in Leviticus (roughly, chapters 11-15) — I wrote:
“The world of Leviticus was full of potential contamination that could pollute the soul. The list included things that could be ingested (ch. 11), touched (ch. 12), or issue from the human body (chs. 12 and 15). Every layer of human covering could be rendered ‘unclean,’ ‘impure,’ ‘defiled’; from one’s own skin, to their clothing, to their home (chs. 13-14).
“The infected person was excluded from the community of God’s people until they went through a cleansing ritual. The ritual of reinstatement occurred in stages that included inspection, a “sin offering” and bathing.”
• I have never fully understood this invisible pollution
◦ it wasn’t presented as a health concern (people then were unaware of germs or bacteria)
◦ it was more like a taboo that released dark energy
• the problem created by the religious people was how they interpreted those purity regulations
◦ their interpretation is presented here as
the tradition of the elders (v. 3) and . . . there are many such traditions that they observe (v. 4)

There is an element of their worldview that I find tragic

First, to them unwashed hands were not just dirty, but “defiled”
– they believed religious impurity could enter body and infect the soul
• there is another layer to this situation
◦ “defiled” translates the Greek word koynos, which translated literally means common
(the division in the purity code was between holiness and everything else)
◦ common or profane refers to everything that is shared by all people and everyday encounters
• normal human activities and interactions made people impure
◦ if you were someone susceptible to excess guilt, can you imagine what that thinking would do to you?
◦ every sensitive person would have an obsessive-compulsive disorder
– in verse 4, “wash” translates the Greek word for baptism
• this cleansing was a ritual purification and not a matter of hygiene
• I was invited to speak at a large Pentecostal church
◦ after service, pastor and assistant used disinfectant wipes to clean their hands
◦ it was probably wise, but I remember being bothered by it,
like they were wiping off the physical contact they had with “normal” people

Jesus did not defend his disciples directly

Instead, he pointed out what was wrong with the Pharisee’s and scribes religion

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. Mark 7:6-8

– the quote from Isaiah knocks the wind out of every believer
• I have to ask myself, when I pray and worship, where’s my heart?
• the heart will be the central theme of Jesus’ rebuttal
– what Jesus stresses from the quote is a mistake they’ve made
• and it’s a very common mistake among many Christians
◦ they did not distinguish between human traditions and God’s commandments
◦ they assumed they were the same thing
Chuck Kraft, “The Scriptures are inspired; our interpretations are not.”
• frequently we have failed to make this distinction
◦ it is one of the short-comings of the religious mind

As we read in verse 4, and there are many other traditions that they observe
– it boggles the mind how many things get tacked onto the basics
• in the book of Acts, there were Christian advocates who insisted,
◦ that though we are saved by grace, it is grace plus circumcision (Acts 15:1, 5)
• religion is always adding to the list – we are saved by grace plus something else

I have imagined a pause between verses 8 and 9

Jesus waited for a response from them, but they remained silent
– maybe they were stunned
• it never occurred to them this quote could apply to them (as Jesus claimed it was written of them)
◦ they could hardly believe that, given all their religious commitments,
◦ they weren’t really honoring God
• perhaps they never thought about this: whether their hearts were in the right place
– while they were mulling this over, Jesus gave them an example
You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! – and he finishes with, And many such things you do (v. 9)
• they created as many loopholes for the serious stuff,
◦ as they did commandments for the mundane things
• traditions can be used to avoid keeping the commandments
◦ interpretations can be used to avoid doing as Jesus taught
◦ religion is often used to keep us at safe distance from God

In verses 14-23, Jesus turns religion in the right direction

There are spiritual toxins that can defile a person
– and those toxins are produced in the human heart
• no germ that enters us can makes us a thief, or murderer, or adulterer
◦ but what’s in our heart can turn us those directions
• purity does matter, but its source is internal
◦ it works from the inside out, not the outside in
◦ no purifying action is effective that doesn’t reach the heart
– it is the heart that has to be purified
• it’s a lot easier to wash our hands than to wash our hearts

Friday I was reading in 1 Chronicles – King David’s last words
– instructions to Solomon and his prayer for the people
• listen to what he says about the heart
And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart, for the LORD searches the hearts and understands every thought and plan (1 Chr. 28:9)
I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. . . . O LORD . . . keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you. Grant to Solomon my son a whole heart that he may keep your commandments (1 Chr. 29:17-19)
• what we see is the heart is of central concern to God
◦ and that having a good and true heart is a cooperative effort
◦ God willingly works with us to make our hearts whole
– I always feel the need to work on my own divided heart
• it is encouraging to know God joins me — and he goes beyond anything I can manage
◦ he performs “heart surgery to remove stuff and to mend torn tissue
◦ he prescribe exercises to strengthen my heart
◦ and if necessary, God replaces my heart with a new heart (Eze. 36:26)

Conclusion: The remainder of the chapter is intriguing

Jesus travels to Tyre and Sidon, then Decapolis
Gentile territory, where the risk of contact with impurity was everywhere
In particular, he encounters a Gentile woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit
But, of course, Jesus was not defiled by his Gentile environment or contacts
He continued to do what he had always done
What he does for us today
He forgave, purified, healed, and brought God to people
Jesus doesn’t spread religion–he shares himself

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Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Good morning, RefleXion Community!                        The Lord is with you!

I’m still thinking about Resurrection.  In John Ch. 11—you’re familiar with the story–Lazarus had died, had been dead a while.  Jesus told Martha that if she believed she would see the glory of God.  Jesus brought him back to life by a command:  Lazurus!  Come out!  He calls each of us out by name too.  He made a way for all, yet it is a personal coming to life, isn’t it?  And the next verse intrigues me, The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with graveclothes, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to the friends who had gathered:  Unbind him and let him go.

A couple of things I notice:  The man—though brought to life—was still wearing his graveclothes, and his face was covered.  Graveclothes are entirely appropriate when one is dead; but once we are brought to life, they are not!  Lazarus came to life but was still wrapped, still bound up.  Jesus could have done it all.  After all, when He rose from the grave, He left all his wrappings behind.  But now Jesus asks the community to help.  Graveclothes/wrappings/bandages/coverings—they all remind me that the man is still bound up with things that won’t allow his full movement and a face cloth that covered his true identity.  Bandages protect wounds, coverings protect shame; wrappings create an illusion or an image that we want others to see. Lazarus, though in life, is still bound up with things that won’t allow his full movement and true identity.

I am Lazarus; I am the community.  Where are my bandages wrapped around my identity?  How do these make me feel substantial, or safe?  Who’s helping us unbind?  Who are we helping take off their graveclothes and feel the freedom of life in Christ?    Are we?

Let’s pray: 

Dearest Lord Jesus, thank you for bringing us to life in you.  Thank you for giving us each other.  Let us not take that lightly.  We were all dead for a long while and may stink a little—or a lot, but it is our privilege and purpose to care for each other.  Let us see those opportunities and love one another as you have loved us.  Let us remove our graveclothes that yet may hinder our free movement in The Holy Spirit.  May the Peace of God fall on us this morning, in Jesus’ Name.  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary . . . ?” And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. Mark 6:1-6

Intro: Years ago, a woman who worked at the church experienced an emotional or psychological breakdown
– her therapist recommended a clinic for in-patient care
• when she was allowed visitors, her family asked me to go see her
• right away I noticed she looked different – lighter, like a weight had been lifted
◦ she was definitely in a better frame of mind
◦ brighter, positive and hopeful
– she explained that to get well, she had to detach from her family
• she could no longer be around them
◦ hearing that shocked me–in fact, it upset me
• I knew her family – they missed her and wanted her back
◦ but I didn’t know them the way she did – so I just listened
◦ my responsibility was to support her progress, not question her therapy

In the church subculture, we expect God to fix families
– for Christians to repair ruptures and to reconcile with brothers and sisters,
• for spouses to develop closer connections in prayer and shared activities,
◦ and for children and parents to negotiate healthier relationships
• but at times the real breakthrough requires a break up
◦ some people must escape their family’s control or abuse
◦ otherwise, they will never become their true self
– there are good families, that are safe and nurturing
• but there are many others, even Christian homes, that are not
◦ to insist that people stay in an abusive relationship, perpetuates the abuse
• my encounter with that woman in the clinic opened my eyes
◦ and what I’ve learned since then has informed my meditations on the Scriptures
◦ especially Jesus’ teaching regarding family and way he treated his own family

In this chapter, Jesus is full of surprises

He surprised the people of his hometown – and they didn’t like it
– he surprised his disciples by feeding a crowd of thousands with small rations
• then surprised them again when he walked on water and calmed a storm
• we’ll begin with Jesus’ reunion in his hometown
– although his old neighbors knew of his “mighty works” (v. 2), in verse 5 we learn,
he could do no mighty works there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them
(I would be ecstatic if I ever touched a few sick people and they were healed!!)
◦ we’ll come back to this
• instead of celebrating their hometown hero, they took offense at him
◦ Jesus explained that a prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household
◦ so I’m sure he anticipated their reaction
• three of my meditations were formed around their rejection of Jesus

We create problems if we refuse the role we’ve been assigned

Let’s back up to chapter 3
a crowd gathered, so that [Jesus and disciples] could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind” (Mk. 3:20-21)
– why are they not able to see Jesus for who he is?
• because they knew him for who he was
• when Jesus lived at home, he conformed to their expectations
◦ he became what he had to be for their sakes
And he came to Nazareth with [his parents] and was submissive to them (Lk. 2:51)
◦ but now, as an adult, he was doing the will of his Father
– in a family, everyone is assigned a role
• I suppose there are a few rules about this
◦ for instance, “Children should be seen and not heard”
◦ but for the most part, it’s an unconscious process
• it has to do with individual personalities, how they mesh,
◦ and what is required for the family to function
◦ in time, family dynamics depend on everyone playing their role
– the dynamics and the roles may not be reasonable or healthy
• they may not even be sane–e.g., a child caring for alcoholic parent
◦ if someone outgrows their role, it throws the family off balance
◦ then the others will try to hammer them back into their role
(sometimes they face criticism or mockery, such as “You’ve become too big for your britches”)
• it is tragic that many people comply with their family and continue to wither
◦ they don’t want to cause problems, or feel it’s their duty to stay and conform,
◦ or they’re afraid they can’t survive without their family’s support
• Jesus tells us to put him above our family
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Mt. 10:37-39)

We must try to see our family members and friends for who they are

It can be really difficult to accept a loved one’s personal growth
– especially if becoming their true self changes our relationship with them
• I knew a hippie, who when he became a Christian, his mother told him,
“I liked you better when you were on drugs”
– it is always fair to renegotiate our relationship with others
• if the old ways of relating no longer work, renegotiate
• we may not enjoy the friendship in the same ways as before,
◦ but we’ll preserve what is best in a relationship

What we think we know may interfere with our faith or even cancel it

Regarding Jesus’ old neighbors, Mark says, And he marveled because of their unbelief (v. 6)
– earlier they were astonished at him, now he’s baffled at them
• what was their problem? They thought they knew Jesus
Is not this the carpenter . . . ?
◦ that was the extent of their knowledge
• remember Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus?
◦ that literal-minded Pharisee asked Jesus, “How?” but there is no how when it comes to something only God’s Spirit can make happen
◦ Jesus’ old neighbors were asking questions like this, Where? What? How?
– we think we know or that we need to know, when in fact what we need is to believe
◦ I think we have a constricted worldview of what is and is not possible
◦ and it gets in the way of our faith
• no one can exert more control over me than my own mind
◦ I create mental barriers for myself
◦ faith and hope are always sources of creativity and possibility
• the slender volume of my mind is not enough space for faith to do its work
◦ I need to believe and trust with all of my heart

I have often meditated on what the unbelief of the hometown crowd cost them
Matthew says,
And he did not do many might works there, because of their unbelief (Mt. 13:54)
– in one of my meditations, I wrote,
“It is truly tragic that I am able to limit what Jesus does for me. Do I ever leave him marveling at my unbelief? If so, I want to change this.”
• nothing God wants to do with me or in me depends on me or on what I can comprehend or figure out
• if God has something for me, I don’t have to get it to receive it

Another subject I have often meditated on is Jesus’ compassion for crowds (v. 34)

In vv. 33 and 55, we find people running to Jesus, literally
– wherever he went, Jesus drew desperate people
• what did he do for them when they reached him? he began to teach them many things
• what? Basic Bible doctrine? Be more judgmental? Decipher the day of his return?
◦ most likely he taught the kingdom of God–in parables
◦ how heaven enters us and transforms us
◦ and how we then affect others through his love
– the practice of Pharisees was to exclude people from their circle
• exclusivity is our nature; we draw lines and build barriers
• inclusivity is the nature of Jesus; he loves all and build bridges

Conclusion: There’s so much more here

For instance, we have the story of John the Baptist’s execution (verses 14-29)
– I once wrote in the margin of my Bible app:
“It is chilling to think that the fate of a great prophet of God could be subject to such trivialities as a birthday party, a girl’s dance, and a king’s ego. The death of his saints is still precious in God’s sight regardless of how their lives end. The glory or dishonor of our death is determined not by our exit from this world, but by our arrival in heaven.”

For our last meditation, Jesus took a stroll across the lake
– walking on water and calming the storm had his disciples “utterly astounded”
Mark says their reaction was because they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened (vv. 51-52)
• he is suggesting that after witnessing the “miracle meal,” nothing else that Jesus did should have surprise them
The benefit of soaking our souls in Mark’s gospel is that it feeds our faith
Absorbing these stories of Jesus as much as possible will deepen our faith in him
So when you read and pray and work and go to bed at night,
leave the doors of your mind open to faith,
because all things are possible

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Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Good morning!       He is Risen!              Hallelujah!

“Come as you are,” “Just as I am;” I always think of Billy Graham when I hear these phrases.  I’ve been pondering these invitations this week, to come just as I am; and I realize there’s a part of me that still wants to come to Jesus with something shined up, straightened up, sinless, not “just as I am.” 

A sentence from a David Benner book also arrested my attention, “But again, I must come to love through sin and failure rather than success and self-improvement.” And this verse from Philippians 3: “…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death that by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (which is, of course, is where I want to go).  But if, as Philippians tells us, we may know Christ and the power of His resurrection, by becoming like Him in His death (many translations say, ‘conformed to his death,’) I realize that as He carried the burden of sin with Him, I must carry the burden of my sin with me to the cross.

It is there that it is forgiven and resurrected, that it is transformed from a place of torture, which sin is, to an empty cross, and to a flowering cross. 

I keep reminding myself that The Way is the Paschal mystery, which includes death AND resurrection.  That is the Jesus Way. 

Join me to pray, will you: Almighty God, we pray that we might understand the incredible greatness of Your power for us who believe, the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead.  Reveal to us through Grace this sacred paschal mystery at work in our own lives.  Raise us, O Lord, to new life in Christ.  You made a way for us to know You as a giving and forgiving God, a redeeming God.  We will follow Jesus on the Way He made for us, the Way of the Cross, the way of death and resurrection.  Hallelujah for this reality—we live because Jesus lives.  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointment.
On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words. Luke 23:55-24:8

Intro: Every year, one line from the Easter story comes to mind

I decided that I would talk about that line today
– the women came early in the morning,
• and they found the tomb, but they did not find Jesus
• however, two men met them, dressed in dazzling apparel
◦ I don’t know about their “apparel,” but that sounds like “Project Runway” to me
◦ the only other time Luke uses the word for dazzling, it’s translated “lightning”
(later they’re referred to as “angels”–vv. 22-23)
they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
– that’s the line: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
• it’s a good one, isn’t it? The kind that preachers love
• can we think about this line for awhile?

The question is off kilter

The angels knew the women were not seeking a living person
– if we back up a few verses we read,
they saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it (Lk. 23:55)
• they had not come seeking “the living”
◦ they came looking for a corpse that placed there two days before
• in Matthew, the angel’s first words were:
Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified (Mt. 28:5)
◦ In Mark’s gospel the angels say,
Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here (Mk. 16:6)
◦ both of those statements make more sense
– so in our passage, these angels knew why the women were there and what they were seeking
• why do they ask this question?
◦ were they pretending to be naive?
◦ were they teasing the women, the way brothers tease their sisters?
◦ were they gently scolding the women? They go on to say:
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise (vv. 7-8)
• I doubt that naivete, teasing, or scolding was the point Luke wanted to convey
◦ perhaps Luke heard something bigger in their question,
“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
◦ I see something bigger – do you?

Maybe Luke wanted to give special emphasis to fact that Jesus was alive

That’s the whole point of observing Easter, right?
– we celebrate life – not in the poetic sense of all living things
• nor is it a message to “make the most this one life”
◦ Jesus did not just “come back to life”
◦ his body was not revived, or resuscitated, or re-booted
• he moved forward through death to a greater dimension of life
◦ a life beyond the existence of biological organisms
◦ a quality of life infinitely larger than what we experience
– his resurrection requires us to adopt a new concept of “life”
• a quality of life we cannot fathom
◦ in John’s gospel Jesus said,
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn. 10:10)
◦ the Greek word perissos means in excess, more than necessary, a superior quality|
◦ the resurrection life of Jesus was all of this — and it’s the life he came to give us

It is natural that we would find idea of life after death comforting

“Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (Jn. 14:19)
– this gives us a sense of security – it makes us feel safe
• I want to believe that in some way the person I am will persist and not be extinguished
◦ and the same for those I have known and loved and lost
• but I think the New Testament is telling us something more than that
◦ telling us something about Jesus
– He is not here–that is, in a tomb or a graveyard–he is risen
• the quality of life that Jesus has now affects our experience of him
◦ he is not in a grave, he is not in the past, he is risen
“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forever more, and I have the keys of Death and Hades (Rev. 1:17-18)

Jesus’ resurrection tells us that we can know him in a new way

Yesterday, my meditation was on Jesus’ prayer in John 17

It is his longest recorded prayer, and fills an entire chapter
– I’ve always known that it is profound
• perhaps that’s why I’ve always struggled with it
◦ I follow it for a line or two, then it changes direction
◦ I try to track the change, but then it doubles back
◦ I think I understand one line, but the next line presents a different thought
• the words make sense – most the lines are manageable,
◦ but to me it seems jumbled and somewhat incoherent
– maybe John intended this prayer to come off this way
• as though we can hear the stress that grips Jesus hours before the cross,
◦ and his urgency to make this final prayer over his disciples
• early on in my reading of John, I would power through it
◦ the prayer was a riddle I couldn’t solve, a mystery too deep for me
◦ later I studied it line-by-line, looking for the rational thread that held it together
◦ but that also proved futile

Yesterday morning was different

It was nothing like any of my previous readings
– I wasn’t trying out a “new method” of interpretation
• in fact, I wasn’t even trying to make sense of it
◦ maybe “not trying” helped me relax into it
◦ I had never before felt its living power like I did yesterday
• it feels weird to say this, but it’s not that I understood it all,
◦ that the prayer finally made rational sense to me,
◦ but it felt like I absorbed it all – I received it and truth of it
– when I began reading I decided to listen as if I could hear Jesus praying the words
• what happened, was that I experienced Jesus’ prayer
◦ he was present, and he was praying, and I was with him listening
◦ and though I did not fully understand it, every word spoke to me

It would be wrong to suggest that I heard Jesus’ voice
– but listening to Jesus pray, I felt his voice
• when I was a small child, I would often sit on my dad’s lap when company came to our home
◦ with my head against his chest, I could feel his deep resonant voice vibrating through his chest
• feeling Jesus’ voice was something like that; like a smooth low frequency hum; a warm sound wave running through the natural world, holding it all together and giving it life; quiet and powerful

Jesus is speaking to his Father

The Father is not present in the same way Jesus is
– but neither is he far away
• he is right here, listening to his Son
◦ their intimacy is undeniable, yet shrouded in mystery
• I am listening, and I hear Jesus pray for himself
◦ I hear him pray for his disciples – I hear him pray for me
◦ he prays for all my Christian friends – and all my Christian enemies as well
(those that Phil Aguilar refers to as the “Christian Mafia”–and he knows because they’ve out a contract on him and his ministry)

I hear Jesus pray something strange, and I have to rewind to hear it again
I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world (v. 11)
– how could Jesus say that? He was right there with them when he prayed these words
• they could hear him say this prayer – and later they could write it down
◦ within a few sentences, Jesus himself says,
But now I am coming to you [the Father], and these things I speak in the world (Jn. 17:13)
• Jesus used the present tense first person singular in strange ways in John’s gospel

For instance, Jesus told his critics, “Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” But they came back at him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham” (who lived and died many centuries prior to this conversation). “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” (Jn. 8:56-59)

• Jesus could say “I am” regarding an event thousands of years prior to his birth,
◦ and he could say “I am” regarding a future in which he would no longer be in the world physically even while he was still in the world
– reading, I am no longer in the world worked a profound effect on me,
• because I could hear him in the present tense;
◦ that is to say, I could hear him pray those words in the exact moment that I read them
• and it was true; Jesus is no longer in the world but with the Father,
◦ impossibly distant, impossibly present here and now, praying for me – for us – it was uncanny!
◦ his prayer creates us, shapes and maintains all that is real
◦ and his prayer is ongoing in the eternal now
. . . he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Heb. 7:25)

Conclusion: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

If Easter is only a fertility holiday of eggs and bunnies, it’s dead
If Easter only takes us back in history and leaves us there, it’s dead
But if Easter is resurrection, it initiates us into a greater quality of life,
an “abundant” life that Jesus shares with us,
so that Paul can tells us, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life” (Ro. 6:4)

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Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Good morning!  Welcome to the RefleXion Community.  The Lord is with you.

“Why should I?”  “Why do I have to be the first to change?”, I’ve heard myself asking a few times lately (well, maybe not out loud).  Do you ever respond to what someone else is doing, or not doing, in a way that is reactive and not in keeping with your Truest nature.  It’s pretty common to use our familiar defenses and coping strategies, to hold a self-protective stance, or even to cower in fear or shame.  Well, it’s all about control, isn’t it?

The Lord answered my “why should I?” one morning recently with a passage from Ezekiel 36.  The Israelites had  defiled and polluted the land, and the Lord had scattered them in punishment.  But then other nations had taunted them, “Why couldn’t your God keep you safe?” So, the Lord responded: Then I was concerned for my holy name, on which my people brought shame among the nations. (He’s speaking to Ezekiel, the prophet here.) Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign LORD: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name.  I will show how holy my great name is.  And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign LORD, then the nations will know that I am the LORD.  For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.  And I will put my Spirit in you so that you can follow my decrees. And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.  Not because you deserve it, but for My Name’s sake.

The Lord not only forgave them, but brought them back to their land, washed them clean, and gave them a new heart and spirit.  Why?  Not because they deserved it, but because that is the character, the nature, of God.

So why must I forgive, bless, and provide for someone who doesn’t deserve or doesn’t want to change?  Why must I show my righteous character in the midst of unfair circumstances?  Because this is my True nature, because someone else or something else, can’t stop me from being who I am.  Our friend, Paula, says “You do you.”  Amen; your responses and your reactions belong to you, and I’ll be true to me, to my new heart and spirit.

Let’s pray:  Lord, what opportunities you give us to practice living righteously.  How stubborn and weak we are.  Thank you for giving us a new heart and a new spirit, that we don’t have to try harder or rely on willpower.  Thank you for your new covenant with us and the gifts you’ve given that we might offer love for Your Name’s sake.  Let us live with wisdom and discernment, as well as compassion.  Thank you not only for dying for us but showing us how to live in our new nature.  May Your light shine brightly through us, and may the nations know that we are Christians by our love.  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes Mark 5:1

Intro: I have enjoyed this story ever since I was a child

When spending the night with cousins or friends,
– we would sit in the dark and tell ghost stories
• it surprised me to find one of the spookiest of ghost stories in Mark’s gospel
◦ and this one is true – it really happened
◦ Mark turns flashlight into his face and tells “The Legend of Legion”
• “It all began on the other side of the sea”
◦ this is like saying, “the other side of the tracks” — it was a bad neighborhood
◦ it was Gentile territory – and anything awful could happen there
– in fact there was a wild man there, tormented by demons, and who lived in the graveyard
• he lacerated his body with stones and was heard howling night and day
◦ he was like an animal, but too strong to capture and cage
for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him (v. 4)
◦ doesn’t Mark begin this story well?
• as soon as Jesus set his foot on the shore,
◦ this man came running at him, screaming

This is the first of three extraordinary stories told in this chapter

One story erupts into the middle of another story
– all three touch on our most common worries:
• conflict – illness – and death
• Jesus resolves the conflict, heals the illness,
◦ and proves to be more powerful than death
– crowds are present, but it’s these three faces that grab our attention

The demonic encounter is unlike any other in the Scriptures

Until now, Jesus has silenced the demons he encountered
– but he speaks to this one – and we’re told where the demons went once they were cast out
• we have seen in Mark that demons know who Jesus is
I know who you are—the Holy One of God (Mk. 1:24)
You are the Son of God (Mk. 3:12)
◦ here he is recognized as, Son of the Most High God
• the first time Most High God appears is when a Gentile priest blessed Abraham

Abraham had known God as El Shaddai, “God Almighty.” Later on he discovered that God was his Provider, so that title was added to Abraham’s list. That is how a record of theological revelations first developed, by the list of titles ascribed to God.

◦ it would seem that Yahweh is recognized as the God above all other gods
◦ in almost every instance that Most High God appears in the Bible, it is connected somehow with Gentiles

The news of this exorcism traveled fast into nearby villages

When the locals arrived they were shocked to see
– Mr. Legion sitting there, clothed and in his right mind
• in his right mind means he was sane, but also he was also in possession of his own mind
◦ no longer controlled by or confused by demons
• his transformation terrified the locals more than when he was wildly possessed
◦ now, it’s not demons that scare them, but Someone far more powerful than the demons
– in the previous chapter, the disciples were frightened by a storm at sea
• but after Jesus calmed the storm,
they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk. 4:41)
• isn’t this wonderful?!
◦ this was not a fear related to a specific physical danger
◦ it was a fear of the unknown – of the supernatural

I always feel sadness when I come to the end of this story

On other occasions, when people wanted to join Jesus,
– he did not reject them outright, but he did discourage them
someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another recruit, Jesus said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And to a third, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk. 9:57-62)
• but here, the man now delivered and sane, begged Jesus to let him be with him
◦ he did not request to be made a disciple, but just to be with him
• perhaps this is first time the man ever felt safe
◦ what was he going to do with his life now? he had nothing
◦ but Jesus flatly denied his request
– this rejection is intensified, because of the number of times Jesus is begged in this chapter and he has granted their request
• people in that area begged Jesus to leave,
◦ Jairus begged for daughter to be healed
◦ even the demons begged Jesus not to send them out of the country
• but with Mr. Legend we find the only instance in this chapter that Jesus denied a request
◦ I do not doubt Jesus’ love for him
◦ or that he did what was best for him, and perhaps what was best for both of them

Anyway, the man took it well
– what Jesus did for him, is he turned him around and gave him a mission
• a mission he jumped into with enthusiasm (v. 20)
◦ Jesus gave him a new life, and a purpose
◦ he gave him a way to please Jesus – and show his gratitude
• if he could not travel with Jesus, he would travel for Jesus

The other two stories have to be told together

Jairus was a man of some importance
– he did not run to Jesus like Legion did,
• but he also fell at Jesus’ feet in desperation
◦ he begged Jesus–to heal his daughter, his little daughter!
• two times Mark tells us there was a great crowd around Jesus
◦ this would have made walking down streets difficult and very slow
– that’s when a woman made her move
• she used the crowd to sneak up behind Jesus
◦ she had a physical disorder that rendered her impure
• both Jairus and woman came to Jesus with the same thought and purpose
◦ to “be made well” (vv. 23 and 28)
◦ both faced the challenge of fear and faith
But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well . . . .
Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” (vv. 34 and 36)

When I read this chapter last year, was also reading Leviticus

Specifically, passages about the priests and their holy garments
– the priests were never allowed contact with anything unclean
• they could not even tend to the body of a deceased relative
◦ their sacred robes were worn only in the sanctuary
◦ no one else was ever allowed to touch those garments
• so Jesus’ words jumped out at me when he suddenly asked,
Who touched my garments?
– I was reminded that Jesus lived outside of designated sacred space
• he even entered Gentile territory
◦ his body and clothing were exposed to impurities
◦ the demon-possessed; a woman with a bleeding disorder; the corpse of a little girl
• when Aaron’s sons violated the purity of worship,
fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them (Lev. 10:2)
◦ but when woman touched Jesus’ garments, power went out from Jesus and healed her
◦ this was the new wine – this was Jesus changing religion
– Jesus continues to live freely in our world
• he’s not afraid to touch us or be touched by us
– the woman received something from Jesus, she received healing
• or, did she steal the healing?
◦ if so, Jesus blessed her, and the faith that gave her boldness to attempt such a theft

When Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter, he kept it secret

His strict warning to parents was opposite to what he told Legion
– I think that may be why he told the mourners the girl was only asleep
• so afterward they wouldn’t realize the magnitude of this miracle

Can you imagine the desperation of countless people coming to Jesus, begging, perhaps demanding that he, raise a recently deceased loved one from the dead?

– it occurred to me, he might have wanted both parents present for this miracle
• so when their daughter regained consciousness,
◦ she would see familiar faces and not be frightened
◦ but I don’t know; it’s just a thought and seemed to be something Jesus would do

Conclusion: I have spent time sitting in each of these stories

I’m not sure that I can muster up the faith of the nameless woman
– or the faith Jesus told Jairus to have
• but what I notice about each of these main characters,
◦ is that they came to Jesus
• they came and each one fell down before him
I can do that – I can collapse at Jesus’ feet
And if that’s all I can do, it is enough
Because Jesus is enough
It is enough, because Jesus is everything

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Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez

Good morning RefleXion Community. The Lord is with you!          The recent talk of The Jesus Movement got me thinking about movements, flow, streams and rivers.  Rivers are mentioned in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.  I especially love Psalm 46:4, There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

Some of us here and online were a part of what was called The Jesus Movement, or we have been involved in other movements—things that seemed important to us at a certain time.  And, whether these movements came and went, or grew and changed, I picture these movements as parts of the larger river.  For instance, you may see The Jesus Movement as a wave, a whirlpool, a bit of white water.  They are in themselves important things, but we can’t forget that they may come and go, and they are still all part of the larger flow of the river, and we are all held and carried by that river.  The movement of God has had its own pace and form since the beginning of time, and who knows how it was before that.  Jesus didn’t let little disturbances cause Him to doubt or sideline his movement.  He knew that He was in the Flow of the River carried forward in the time and way of the Holy Spirit, for His Father’s purposes.

“Aslan is on the move” (do you remember the Beaver’s word to the children in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?).  Aslan was a Lion and the True King of the land.  The Beaver says, “They say Aslan is on the move- perhaps has already landed.”

The story goes on.  And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand, but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning- either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in their inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.

Let me read you the first few verses from the last chapter of the book of Revelation; this is where the river is taking us. What do you feel as you hear it?  Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.  And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there–no need for lamps or sun–for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.”  Do you feel something jump on your inside?  It might be the Spirit of God leaping with the joy of it all.

My prayer:  Thank you, Savior Jesus for making a way; You are the Way.  Let us be carried forward in Your Flow of Love.  Let the joy of being with you now and forever help us to keep our heads above water and trust that You are the True King, who has landed and will come again. Come quickly now and take us all the way Home.  Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow . . . .” Mark 4:1-3

Intro: I’ve enjoyed the privilege of walking the shores of the Galilee “sea”

Sometimes in the early morning, other times in the afternoon, and some evenings as well
– so once, when reading this chapter, I put myself there
• Jesus could be seen walking those shores frequently
◦ that’s what he was doing when he called his first disciples (Mk. 1:16-20)
• in the previous chapter, people found him there
◦ so many, in fact that the press of the crowd threatened to crush him (Mk. 3:8-9)
◦ what he did then, he did again this time
◦ he climbed into a boat, pushed off from shore, and taught them from there
– I imagined serene surface of the lake, heard ripples running on shore,
• and noticed that the gentle rocking of the boat was mesmerizing
◦ it is easy to sit and listen to his voice coming across the water
• he tells his simple stories and my mind watches them unfold ,
◦ filling in details with color and texture

“Listen!,” he says, “Behold, a farmer went out scattering seeds”
– I picture the “sower” walking back and forth along the furrowed rows of the field
• he scatters handfuls of grain from a large sack slung over his shoulder
◦ the wind carries the kernels in all directions
◦ to the roadside next to his field, among a pile of rocks, and into a patch of weeds
• but, as we expected only the seeds in good soil thrived
– that was it – that was his message to the crowd
• only, in conclusion he added,
Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear
• I scratch my beard and wonder, “What’s the point?”

Jesus’ parables communicate truth in a rough narrative form

The purpose of a story is different from a lecture or essay
– stories are meant to create an experience for hearer or reader
• a good story gives you a sense of being there
– Jesus used parables to create a bridge
• between what we know and the unknowable
• they helps us make rational connections, but they do more than that,
◦ they produce an enlightening experience

In verse 30, Jesus asks, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like . . . .
– here is your assignment: describe yellow to a person who is color blind
• you would most likely start with “It is like,” because no visual description would be meaningful to them
• then what? “Yellow is like the feeling of sunshine on your face,” perhaps
◦ or, “Yellow is like a low note softly played on a saxophone”
◦ you have to work with what they know and have experienced

At the end of the day, Jesus met with a small group of disciples

They wanted to know what he was saying with all his parables
– he first told them why parables were necessary
• the parables were not meant for them as much as for the crowd
To you has been given the secret (mystery) of the kingdom of God
• I wondered what had been given to the disciples?
◦ was it what we call head-knowledge of the mystery of God’s kingdom?
◦ or had the kingdom itself been given to them
– is it possible disciples possessed more than they knew?
• obviously, if Jesus had to tell them the kingdom was given to them they had not known it
• at any rate, the parables were for those outside Jesus’ circle
◦ since the time of Isaiah, they were unable to grasp the straight-forward word of the prophets (vv. 11-12)

In verse 13, it sounds to me like Jesus was frustrated with them
“If you don’t get this parable, how can I take you any further? Okay, this time I’ll explain my parables to you. You have to receive the word like a seed, you have to receive the kingdom like a child” (Mk. 10:15)
– if they already had the mystery of the kingdom, they should have known what the seed is and does
• when the seed falls on a human heart, it may:
◦ never be given a chance to sink in
◦ or grow quickly, but without deep roots it dies
◦ or sprout, but have its life choked out (by distractions)
◦ or in good soil, grow, and produce grain – a lot of grain!
– I have to admit, his explanation is really helpful

One morning, the second line of verse 13 rattled my cage
How then will you understand all the parables?

Is Jesus saying that this parable is a gateway to all his parables?
– that it is the key to understanding his parables?
• in explaining this parable Jesus says, The sower sows the word
◦ that is to say, the seed is the word as Jesus delivers it–each parable is a seed
◦ Matthew refers to it not only as the word, but as the word of the kingdom
• parables are the seed that is scattered
◦ as Jesus talks about seed and soils, he is planting seeds!
– I’m convinced that Jesus’ next illustration brings further clarity to this
“Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears, let him hear (Mk. 4:21-23)
• a parable is like a lamp put under a basket
◦ the truth is there, but it’s hidden in a story
The light is revealed to those who are ready to receive it
But it is concealed from those who are not ready or who resist it
• the kingdom of God is a hidden, transcendent dimension
◦ but its light shines in Jesus and through his parables
◦ they are like portals through which the light of the kingdom of God enters our hearts

How do we receive the word so that it enlightens and grows in us?

Where did Jesus begin? In verse 3 he began with, “Listen! Behold”
– we listen and we look with focused awareness
(there is also open awareness where we are not concentrating on any particular thing, but noticing our environment with openness and no judgment)
If anyone has ear to hear, let him hear (vv. 9 and 23)
Pay attention to what you hear (v. 24)
• we choose how much attention we give to parables
◦ and the quality of that attention
◦ our attention determines how much we get from the parables
• but the principle of listening works both ways
with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added (v. 24)
– what happens next is that the more we exercise our awareness, the more it grows
For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away (v. 25)

How do the parables make these incredible things happen?
The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear Mark 4:26-28

Do you hear the rhythm of these words, “sleeps and rises” – “night and day”?
• it’s the rhythm of the farmer’s life
◦ farmers calibrate their lives according to the rhythm of nature
• they rise and plant, they sleep and the seed sprouts and grows
◦ but they don’t know how! –they don’t have to know how
– we just do the work and accept our ignorance of things infinite and eternal
◦ we don’t know how the word changes us, or what kind of changes it will work in us,
◦ or how its growth occurs
• God’s Spirit makes it happen, so it is beyond knowing
◦ what we are allowed to know is the fruit of the process

God knows our limits and weaknesses, and he assists us

Many times I conclude my meditation with a prayer of confession
For instance: “I know God’s kingdom surrounds me right now and that it is in me at the same time. I also know that I do not give it all the space that it requires. Lord Jesus, I want to follow You; please help me do a better job of it.”
– I used to be frightened by the parable of the seed and four soils
• they looked like a test or trial used to cut the less talented from the team
• they are exactly the opposite
◦ Jesus gave us parables to qualify us for discipleship

Conclusion: In 2016, after meditating on this chapter, I wrote:

1. I am not the first disciple who has been a slow-learner
2. It’s possible that I posses more than what I know
3. Jesus wants to give us the secret of the kingdom of God
4. It’s okay to ask questions
5. Faith will be enough to move forward when reason fails
6. Jesus supports our success as his disciples
   In fact, he will guarantee it if we let him and trust him